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Dominik Wants Florida Pro “Bus League”

July 8th, 2014

It sure sounded like former Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik is lobbying to be commissioner of a new NFL developmental league.

Speaking last night on SiriuxXM NFL Radio along with co-host Howard Balzer, Dominik made a powerful case for a “March, April” league that would give potential NFL players and bottom-of-the-roster talent some experience and top coaching.

Dominik said a six-team Florida “bus league” playing and practicing on grass would be an ideal situation. It would keep costs down for the NFL, Dominik said, versus the “more than $1 million per club” spent on NFL Europe years ago.

Dominik suggested the NFL could have a central facility that would house and train up to six teams, and the teams could represent cities around the state and play home games in locations like Tallahassee, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, etc.

How serious was Dominik? “It’s not a need. It’s a must,” he said.

The NFL Radio audio of Dominik below is interesting. Joe’s all in favor of this idea. Joe would love the idea of drinking beer on a March Saturday night watching, say, Steven Means try to decapitate Matt Barkley.

This is actually a really good idea. I think a lot of guys would be thrilled to have a chance to continue to their career while hoping for a shot to impress scouts and learn a pro-style system.

Now how would you do it though? Would it be a farm system like the NBA where each team assigns players to a developmental league? I’d like have a team connection where we could see some of our young FA’s in action, instead of making it a street free agent fest with little to root for.

Great idea! Do away with the PS! Roster size to 61. Travel team at 45 – home team can dress all! Home team advantage! Why train players for other teams? Salary cap controls roster make-up. Less stress on injured players to play. Sets stage for expanded playoffs.

The only question I have is who did Dominik steal this idea from? Dominick is good for a sound bite here and there, But as ALL Buc fans now know, the guy is a buffoon. No way Goodell ever trust anything to this guy.

Dominik has the negotiating skills of a teenager trying to pay over sticker price for a new Camaro and an eye for talent that would embarrass Ray Charles. He belongs in middle management at the Florida DMV.

Nice idea because arena ball is unwatchable and the NCAA is losing it’s governance with the mega conferences emerging.
I also like the three state idea, expand it, add a Midwest state and have playoffs.

Haters are going to hate. I could pick any GM and see mistakes they made. He didn’t hire Rah, wonder what if chip Kelly would have come. His record was poor. No doubt. I just don’t think the GM should be held as close to wins and losses. Did he blow the lead with the jets, saints or Seattle? Hate on good people like the buc realist have say that something between them happened, others have moved on.

There are so many players (like Glennon) who need more work to develop enough to contribute to the NFL. I agree with Dom, the league absolutely NEEDS a developmental league – I’m not sure that will happen with what amounts to an elongated pre-season.

The league needs this because of the last collective bargaining agreement put the finishing touches on – player development. That’s not just because of union constraints on how much teams can work players – but also because of the money teams have to dedicate to veteran salaries (especially starting veterans)…meaning there is no time or money to dedicate to player development.

When you think about QB’s like Kurt Warner and Brad Johnson – playing time and practice reps AS the starter – is crucial to development. That’s just the QB’s – there were numerous players that came from NFL-Europe that would not have made a NFL roster until/unless they got a chance to play and practice as a starter.

So I agree with the RockStar – and because I am not one who agrees that Dominick was miserable at talent identification – I can appreciate that he tried to think outside the box. I still remember one 10-6 season when a bunch of no-names came off the bench to sustain that run – those were ALL guys Dominik found and stocked. Many of the guys he found were on practice squads or buried in depth charts behind the back-up’s (wasn’t Donald Penn one of these guys?).

I think he got so much attention for the quick success those guys had – that the owners may have thought Dominik had some new magical alchemy – where they would get starters at lower salaries than premium draft-picks. Maybe because of that limited success, Dom thought he’d secretly figured out a short-cut? Whatever happened – the things that made him a GM candidate led to his early success.

I think Dom’s right, we need a developmental league – I also think we’ll need the development of European interest in US Football – so it would seem to me that basing that developmental league in Europe might be a good idea. I know NFL-Europe was an expensive adventure – but it seemed to be working when they shut it down. It might be time to start it up again?

At any rate – I’ll repeat it for the 3rd time – Dom’s right. I’d personally have no problem with TheRockStar being the commissioner of that league. He’s always been a strong advocate for a developmental league, and he seems to have always had a heart for the underdogs that could use a little more time in the harness before getting buried on the depth chart and exiting the league within a year or two…